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Article

An Ultra-Robust, Highly Compressible Silk/Silver Nanowire Sponge-Based Wearable Pressure Sensor for Health Monitoring

1
Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation, Los Angeles, CA 91367, USA
2
Department of Materials Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
3
Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
4
Department of Bioengineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
5
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Biosensors 2025, 15(8), 498; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios15080498 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 9 June 2025 / Revised: 7 July 2025 / Accepted: 24 July 2025 / Published: 1 August 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wearable Biosensors and Health Monitoring)

Abstract

Wearable pressure sensors have emerged as vital tools in personalized monitoring, promising transformative advances in patient care and diagnostics. Nevertheless, conventional devices frequently suffer from limited sensitivity, inadequate flexibility, and concerns regarding biocompatibility. Herein, we introduce silk fibroin, a naturally occurring protein extracted from silkworm cocoons, as a promising material platform for next-generation wearable sensors. Owing to its remarkable biocompatibility, mechanical robustness, and structural tunability, silk fibroin serves as an ideal substrate for constructing capacitive pressure sensors tailored to medical applications. We engineered silk-derived capacitive architecture and evaluated its performance in real-time human motion and physiological signal detection. The resulting sensor exhibits a high sensitivity of 18.68 kPa−1 over a broad operational range of 0 to 2.4 kPa, enabling accurate tracking of subtle pressures associated with pulse, respiration, and joint articulation. Under extreme loading conditions, our silk fibroin sensor demonstrated superior stability and accuracy compared to a commercial resistive counterpart (FlexiForce™ A401). These findings establish silk fibroin as a versatile, practical candidate for wearable pressure sensing and pave the way for advanced biocompatible devices in healthcare monitoring.
Keywords: pressure sensors; silk fibroin; silver nanowire; wearables pressure sensors; silk fibroin; silver nanowire; wearables

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Li, Z.; Yu, N.; Hartel, M.C.; Haghniaz, R.; Emaminejad, S.; Zhu, Y. An Ultra-Robust, Highly Compressible Silk/Silver Nanowire Sponge-Based Wearable Pressure Sensor for Health Monitoring. Biosensors 2025, 15, 498. https://doi.org/10.3390/bios15080498

AMA Style

Li Z, Yu N, Hartel MC, Haghniaz R, Emaminejad S, Zhu Y. An Ultra-Robust, Highly Compressible Silk/Silver Nanowire Sponge-Based Wearable Pressure Sensor for Health Monitoring. Biosensors. 2025; 15(8):498. https://doi.org/10.3390/bios15080498

Chicago/Turabian Style

Li, Zijie, Ning Yu, Martin C. Hartel, Reihaneh Haghniaz, Sam Emaminejad, and Yangzhi Zhu. 2025. "An Ultra-Robust, Highly Compressible Silk/Silver Nanowire Sponge-Based Wearable Pressure Sensor for Health Monitoring" Biosensors 15, no. 8: 498. https://doi.org/10.3390/bios15080498

APA Style

Li, Z., Yu, N., Hartel, M. C., Haghniaz, R., Emaminejad, S., & Zhu, Y. (2025). An Ultra-Robust, Highly Compressible Silk/Silver Nanowire Sponge-Based Wearable Pressure Sensor for Health Monitoring. Biosensors, 15(8), 498. https://doi.org/10.3390/bios15080498

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